SPRING IS ON ITS WAY

Just a note, I have been away too long.  I need to start preparing for spring.  After this year of hiatus from the garden we need to do so much to get ready.  The main thing to do is find the seeds I put away.  Yes, I cannot remember where the safe hiding place is.  

The second thing "we " have to do is re-fence the garden.  The deer  and the elements have done a number on on the Hay bale netting we used.  It was very efficient for 3 years, I have no complaints.  We will make sure we put down weed barrier of some sort (for a 3 foot width).  The weeds are impossible to extract and mowing next to the fence was disaster (the netting would get caught in any implement).

The garden is going to be much smaller this year.  I am gearing down to only drive sales (mainly for my own use, but I will share the over production.) 

This year there will be special attention to the production of the "Spartan Arrow beans"  They seem to be falling out of favor, why I don't understand.  We will be saving seed as well as growing for our own use.  Our main battle in this endeavor will be fighting any resident ground hogs (We know we can keep the deer out with proper fencing).  BTW local deer hunters did us a big service this year.  Four deer, all females were harvested.  They were young deer who had never had "kids".  The day after deer season ended we had 5 deer browsing in the pasture.

We will also be growing "Chinese Long Beans".  I pulled a package from the freezer this past weekend.  They were from 2010.  I could detect no deterioration from the extended stay in the freezer, not in the texture or the flavor.

The first order of business is to grow lettuce.  We are so hungry for lettuce and it seems every time we eat store bought lettuce we get sick.  Our lettuce of choice is "Prizehead".  It is an old time leaf lettuce which goes from lime green in the center to a beautiful burgundy on the outside.  It is very flavorful and stays sweet longer into the heat than other lettuces.

Of course there are the tomatoes.  Definitely there will be "Juliets" in our garden and her yellow sister "Golden Rave" and at least a couple of plants of "Jelly Beans".  Others, well, that will be discussed when I find the seeds...LOL.

I need to start the hunt.  I promise I won't be gone long.  Have fun getting your garden laid out.

For more blogs by me visit at:

http://gloriouscreations.blogspot.com

A blog mostly about quilting, but cooking, poetry, prose and a little gardening,

http://glosgarden.blogspot.com/

Not a garden blog.  There are articles which have nothing to do with creating or gardening. 

There are blogs on the new born baby kittens we found and are mothering.  It is a blog where I will sometimes voice my opinions which will always be environmentally friendly.

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FALL FAILURES

This year has been the absolute worst gardening year we have ever had.  If we weren't fighting bugs we were fighting diseases.  Our flowers even suffered, especially roses.  If any make it through to next year I will be surprised.  I had too much to do to give them the attention they needed.

The picture is our beans .

They are one of the successes this year.  I will say I have never had a batch of fall beans be bad or go bad.  The problem with late beans is you may not get any because an early frost may bite down hard.  These beans have had 5 frost mornings.  We have been covering them when It looks like it may be close to that temp.  We found a really great cover for them; Canvas paint cloths.  They were heavy enough a wind did not dislodge them but they weren't too heavy in that they would mash the plants.  Burlap sacking worked well too, but the holes in it did not keep the heat in so there were places on some leaves that got freezer burn. 

We have had wonderful surprises.  Dahlia bulbs which we had been going to throw out because they were so small, we planted.  They were planted in pots and were stunted because I didn't find a place for them till August.  they took off when their feet hit the soil and are blooming their heads off. This picture was taken a month ago.



I wish I had a current pix.  They are blooming ferociously.  They were not covered during the frost and did not seem to suffer.  I thought for sure the plants would be melted by the frost.

So much has happened this year that I should have written about and didn't. 

We did have wonderful garden visitors:

This garden spider was just one of our great visitors.

Thank you for visiting.  Now that things are slowing down I will have time to post the goings on in the garden.  Right now we are cleaning all the debri out of the tomato beds. We still have peppers performing. Till the next revealing trip to our garden. 

May your autmn be as beautiful as it is in St. Louis.